X-class solar flare EXPLODES, sparks blackouts in Asia! Solar storm shadow looms over Earth

A terrifyingly powerful X-class solar flare has erupted on the Sun today, March 29, causing radio blackouts in Australia and southeast Asia. Now, the dark shadow of a solar storm is looming over Earth.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Mar 29 2023, 12:32 IST
Think you know our Sun? Check out THESE 5 stunning facts
Sun
1/5 The Sun is the largest object in our solar system and is a 4.5 billion-year-old star – a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium at the center of the solar system. It is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth, and without its energy, life as we know it could not exist here on our home planet. (Pixabay)
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2/5 The Sun’s volume would need 1.3 million Earths to fill it. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris in orbit around it. The hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). The Sun’s activity, from its powerful eruptions to the steady stream of charged particles it sends out, influences the nature of space throughout the solar system. (NASA)
Sun
3/5 According to NASA, measuring a “day” on the Sun is complicated because of the way it rotates. It doesn't spin as a single, solid ball. This is because the Sun’s surface isn't solid like Earth's. Instead, the Sun is made of super-hot, electrically charged gas called plasma. This plasma rotates at different speeds on different parts of the Sun. At its equator, the Sun completes one rotation in 25 Earth days. At its poles, the Sun rotates once on its axis every 36 Earth days. (NASA)
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4/5 Above the Sun’s surface are its thin chromosphere and the huge corona (crown). This is where we see features such as solar prominences, flares, and coronal mass ejections. The latter two are giant explosions of energy and particles that can reach Earth. (Pixabay)
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5/5 The Sun doesn’t have moons, but eight planets orbit it, at least five dwarf planets, tens of thousands of asteroids, and perhaps three trillion comets and icy bodies. Also, several spacecraft are currently investigating the Sun including Parker Solar Probe, STEREO, Solar Orbiter, SOHO, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Hinode, IRIS, and Wind. (Pixabay)
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Know all about the X-class solar flare eruption that sparked radio blackouts in Australia and southeast Asia that now threatens to unleash a solar storm too. (Pixabay)

A terrifying X-class solar flare has erupted on the Sun in the early hours today, March 29. The solar flare eruption occurred on the Earth-facing sunspot AR3256 and has caused strong shortwave radio blackouts in large regions of Australia, southeast Asia and New Zealand. This came after it was reported yesterday that as many as 9 sunspot groups have appeared on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. Forecasters had claimed that the sunspots seemed to be stable, but one of them unexpectedly exploded.

The incident was reported by SpaceWeather.com which noted on its website, “The sun just produced another X-class solar flare, the 7th of 2023. The X1.2-category explosion came from sunspot AR3256 near the sun's southwestern limb. Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing a strong shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand”. The solar flare erupted roughly at around 7 AM IST.

It was also stated that ham radio operators, drone pilots and aviators noticed loss of signal below 30 MHz for an hour after the solar flare erupted.

Blackouts and solar storm plague the Earth

As the Sun's Solar Cycle 25 nears, solar activity is getting more intense. Whereas in a normal year, astronomers detect a couple of X-class solar flares, we have already seen seven of them strike the Earth by the end of March. Previous solar flares have also badly affected Australia, South America and Africa. In fact, oil grids had to temporarily shut down due to a solar storm attack last month.

Next, the Earth must prepare for a glancing blow from incoming CME, which can cause solar storm events. While early predictions state that the flare eruption was brief and as such the risk for CME release is not high, it should not be counted out. In the worst case scenario, solar storms in the G4 and G5 category can potentially damage satellites, break down mobile networks and internet services, cause power grid failures and corrupt sensitive ground-based electronics such as pacemakers and ventilators.

How NASA SOHO monitors the Sun

NASA's SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is a satellite that was launched on December 2, 1995. It is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to study the sun, its atmosphere, and its effects on the solar system. Equipped with 12 scientific instruments, such as Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) and others, SOHO captures images of the sun's corona, measures the velocity and magnetic fields of the sun's surface, and observes the faint corona around the sun.

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First Published Date: 29 Mar, 12:31 IST
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